Sunday, March 14, 2010

The best means for small business holders to accept credit cards are through PayPal, a merchant account, and via phone service.

An important thought to be kept by small business owners is to catch up with the generation’s ways and trends. Payment through credit cards, otherwise known as plastic money, is all the rage in businesses. The convenience offered to customers who prefer credit cards compel business owners to set up the needed apparatus to run their payment processing in this manner. To those small business owners who are aspiring supporters to the plastic money trend, explore the following methods to cater credit cards:

PayPal

Companies such as PayPal are called third party payment processor in the industry of web-based businesses. Small businesses can really benefit out of this type of service because it is has a trouble-free setup and it doesn’t need special skills to use. Another advantage is that you may open a merchant account to go along with it. In this manner, it doesn’t only accept credit cards, it also process the transaction. It is to be expected that extra services means additional charge but it is all worth it for PayPal deals with the merchant account itself. That’s not even the best of it. Its latest, cutting-edge feature is the virtual terminal that you can install through your mobile phone. With the aid of PayPal’s Website Payment Pro, it is made possible to accept credit cards via phone, email, fax or post.

Merchant account

Another way to accept credit cards is through acquiring a merchant account. This isn’t only widespread for the majority of retailers but also for small business owners. Opening a merchant account also may come with a terminal where a credit card’s magnetic strip is striped. You probably have seen this terminal in brick and mortar depots. This system is rapid in all sense. Swipe a card and it only takes seconds with one client and then you can move on to the next. You are also secured against chargeback and you can receive your earnings in a day or two. You also have control over your account. Through the years, merchant accounts have modernized and allowed credit card payments through mobile devices namely Blackberry, Palm, and iPhone.

Phone service

This method is also called Accept by Phone Service. A traveling merchant who is constantly on the go would surely benefit from this service. Plumbers, door-to-door salesmen, contractors and movers are a few merchants who can run their business in the palm of their hand. It only takes dialing an 800 number, then key in a password and finally, enters the credit card number of your customer with the billing amount. This speedy transaction happens only for seconds and everything is now processed.

With the mentioned alternatives to cash and checks, both merchant and customer will be engaged in a business deal which is not only productive but also convenient. Even if these means of accepting credit cards would involve a fee, it’s more vital to think of gaining more in the near future. PayPal, merchant account and phone service got it all.